Very good

Another excellent book. Well read, great characterisation. Highly recommended . Well worth listening to. Wonderful story.

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Another great Marsh story.

Not as convoluted and long winded as some,. I like the stories full of red herrings. I listen whilst I work so the more tedious, in a good way, the better. This story was fairly direct and to the point.

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2 people found this helpful

Tradtional Detective Novel

A bit slow to get started (until the murder then arrival of Alleyn) but turned out to be a very fine traditional detective novel. In my opinion, the characters are not as well developed as in other Ngaio Marsh Inspector Alleyn novels but even so the plot was excellent - twisty without being over complicated. A very good listen but not my favourite Ngaio Marsh - however she sets the bar very high! The narration by James Saxon was excellent as always.

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Abrupt end

This story creeps up on you. At first, I found it rather boring, and my mind kept wandering. However, as soon as the murder happened, it became very interesting and I listened 'with all my ears'. I can't usually solve detective stories, but I do seem to be able to solve the ones written by this author, and once again I had worked out the solution well before the end. I think Ngaio Marsh is generous with her clues :) The book ended very abruptly, almost mid sentence, which was strange.

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Good but not brilliant

I like Marsh's style, and her descriptions of settings and characters. The Alleyn novels are fun and contain a lot of details that give us a snapshot of the time when they were written. The plot of this one feels a bit contrived, however, and the characters are less interesting than usual. The narration is competent and in some ways very good – I would have wished for a little more contrast between some of the characters' voices, though, because the dialogue is sometimes rather hard to follow.

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Not vintage Naigo

In creating place, atmosphere and social relationships within a specific setting Naigo usually surpasses Agatha C, who admitted she didn’t like “describing”. This book is an exception relying mainly on lengthy conversations setting out a variety of tedious hypothetical proposals as to the culprit. Again her usually impeccable ear for dialogue is replaced by a generic West Country Yokelshire accent, a mad Chief Constable who speaks entirely in a word salad of literary quotations. None of the candidates come alive or are sympathetic. If you enjoy puzzles about how to get a goose a wolf and an alligator across a swollen river with only a log a tin of tomatoes and a box of matches you may enjoy the plot. When the solution comes it is technically possible but impossible to believe it would have been attempted or have succeeded. If you enjoy character driven plots in an interesting setting that leave you exclaiming “of course” I think you will be disappointed.

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